Main navigation

What Is Safe Mode On Android?

As smartphone manufacturers are going towards premium hardware and software, Android smartphones and tablets are becoming more and more like computers. I remember getting my first Android phone a couple of years back and even though I fell in love with it, that phone is nowhere near what the latest Android smartphones can do today. With technological advancement comes consequences and as smartphones are getting rich in features, issues and glitches are also on the rise.

While software updates can fix most problems faced by Android users, some problems can get quite severe and third party apps that you install from the Google Play Store can really mess up your phone. There are several users who are facing problems like random reboots and loss of data on their Android devices. This isn’t anything new on PCs and if you’ve had this problem on your computer, then I’m sure you would have come across Safe Mode. What is safe mode on Android?

Safe Mode for computers basically lets you boot up your PC with minimum drivers and functionality, just enough in order to load up your PC. Therefore, third party software and apps are not loaded. This can really help you find out what the real problem is. Similarly, there is a Safe Mode on Android that pretty much does the same thing. If you’re looking to find out what Safe Mode actually is, then continue reading to find out what it can do and why you should use it.

What Is Safe Mode On Android?

If you’ve previously used Safe Mode on your computer, then you’ll find this mode very much similar to your PC’s Safe Mode. If you’re facing minor problems from a particular app, then there’s not really any need to boot into Safe Mode and you can easily uninstall the app. However, there can be cases where an app can really mess with your device and your might face instant battery drain, random reboots and an unresponsive screen.

Your phone might not even boot up. When you’re facing such extreme situations, then it is difficult to find the app that is causing the problem and even if you do find it, it might be difficult to uninstall it because your phone might not function properly.

In such a situation, Safe Mode can be really handy. The way this works is that your phone boots up with minimum features and only those features are loaded that are necessary to use the phone. Any third party applications that you installed either through the Google Play Store or through APK files will not be loaded.

This way, you can get your phone to work normally and can uninstall the app that is causing the problem. Booting into Safe Mode is extremely easy and it is available on most Android devices. When you’re booted into Safe Mode, you’ll see Safe Mode written in the lower left corner of the screen.

Why Should You Use Safe Mode?

As I mentioned previously, there are some problems on Android that can cause your phone to malfunction. In these extreme cases, it can be impossible to uninstall an app and remove the culprit that is messing with your phone. Safe Mode can be used to get your phone in its normal state so that you can use the basic features and remove the app that is causing the problem.

Another reason why you should use Safe Mode is that it is better than resetting your phone. If the phone isn’t functioning properly, some users might freak out and perform a hard reset on their phones. This will delete all the data from the phone. If you don’t want to lose your data and want to take care of the problem on your own, then you’ll need to use Safe Mode. You can think of Safe Mode as a temporary factory reset where your phone goes back to its factory state, but you can get back all your apps and data when you boot into normal mode again.

Another instance is when your phone is malfunctioning and you need to get it repaired because you don’t know what the problem is. In this case, you might want to read your messages and view other notifications before getting the phone repaired. While booted in Safe Mode, you’ll be able to view all your notifications before getting it repaired.

When Is Safe Mode Not Effective?

While Safe Mode is one of the most useful features on Android when you’re facing problems, it might not be useful in certain situations. You’ll need to find out what the problem is first before you can take care of it and finding an app that is messing with your phone when you have lots of apps installed can be difficult. In this case, Safe Mode won’t really help you because you don’t know the culprit.

You might uninstall everything from your phone in Safe Mode in trying to find the problem, but a factory reset also does the same thing. Another problem that you might have after using Safe Mode is to get out of it and boot your phone in normal mode. Surprisingly, there are a lot of users who booted their phones in Safe Mode but can’t get out of it even after doing several restarts. Fortunately, you can follow my guide on how to turn off Safe Mode if you’re stuck in it.

Conclusion

The Android operating system comes with several hidden features that can help you when you’re facing problems on your phone and Safe Mode is one such feature. If you’re a fan of Safe Mode on your PC, then you’ll love it on your Android device as well as it is almost the same thing.

Whether you’re looking to uninstall an app that is making your phone malfunction or you just want to boot your device temporarily in factory state, you can easily enable Safe Mode on your Android smartphone or tablet. So, what is safe mode on Android? If you still have questions, please feel free to mention them in the comments section below. Also, feel free to tell us your experience with Safe Mode on Android.

Would turning safe mode on in any way help out a theif? I ask because I lost my phone one day and my security app was unable to find my device. The next day, someone found it and returned it to me. It was still on, but when I put my passcode in, the phone was in safe mode. I know I never even turned my phone off when I lost it, which means someone was messing with it. If someone knew about safe mode, would there be any way for them to get into my phone? Or any other benefit they would get from doing that? Thanks!

I have a samsung galaxy ace style straight talk. I dont know what happend but It wont work unless its plugged in. I thought the battery so I bought a new one. Didnt work. I put it in safe mode and tried to unplug it. Still nothing. What it does is flash the samsung logo then dies. It does this overand over again. So I tried hard reset it and factory reset it. Still nothing. But I did find out when I went into the recovery mode I could unplug it and it would work. I need help!! Im not good with stuff like this but I have been working at it for the past 4 hours and kinda have a feel for what im doing but im still lost.

Hi Wesley,
If your phone has a removable battery try taking it out and putting back in and turning your phone on. If you don´t have a removable battery, try holding the power button for 10 second and hopefully it will reboot. Please let me know if this helps.

hi, I returned my phone to the manufacturer some months ago when I discovered it has malware. the phone was returned and I discovered I was unable to root it and my phone sometimes did not launch third party application like psiphon, tweakware, simple Android server etc.
what can I do?

Think of when the issues started on your phone and you could install the apps you downloaded right around that time. You can use an app called App Detective that tells you the exact installation date of each and every one of your apps. It’s free to download on Google Play right now. I’ve tried it and it works great.

it’s hard to say. Phones don’t just put themselves into safe mode. It’s usually a button combination to put it into safe mode. As far as deleting apps maybe there was an update and are just on your home screen anymore. I would try rebooting your phone to get out of safe mode. As far as your apps go, I if they’re not in your app drawer, I would just re-download them.